Dry Dock to W of embanked Aqueduct

Dry Dock and Canal Drain to W of Embanked Aqueduct

Description: This dry dock and drain lie within the section completed in 1805 under Thomas Cartwright. To the west is the rectangular dry dock which could be closed off from the canal by means of stop planks with the water draining into the stream through the trapezoidal-shaped sluice to its east. The two are linked by a low rubble faced canal bank; the dry dock has been repaired with concrete facing. There is a footbridge over the sluice and both this and the dock are controlled by two surviving rack-and-pinion paddles; formerly also a windlass that operated the drain plug in the canal. Parapet continues into low rubble wall beyond sluice.

History: The Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal was promoted in 1792 to connect the upper Usk valley to the Monmouthshire Canal at Pontymoile and from there to the sea at Newport. Construction began in 1797, with Thomas Dadford as engineer, and the first section, from Gilwern to Llangynidr was completed in that year with the stretch as far as Brecon following in 1800. Work then stopped for a time with the result that the section to the Blaenavon Road east of Govilon was not completed until 1805, now with Thomas Cartwright as engineer. Further funds had to be raised and the last section from west of Llanfoist to Pontymoile was completed between 1809 and 1812, with William Crosley as engineer. Linked to tramroads, the canal was an important artery for trade in iron, limeand coal. In 1865 the Monmouthshire and the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal Companies merged becoming the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal Company. Later still the canal was bought out by the Great Western Railway and gradually the canal was run down until it was finally abandoned in 1962. Restoration work was begun in 1964 and is still ongoing.

Included for group value with the Embanked Aqueduct and other canal structures as a surviving feature of the early C19 canal.

References: Nicholson's guides to the Waterways, vol 3, South-west, p49-55, (n.d.). R A Stevens, Brecknock & Abergavenny and Monmouthshire Canals (Towpath Guide No 2), (Cambridge, 1974), p50.